February 7, 2015

January 29th pro-war torchlight rallies in Kherson, Kyiv, & Odessa. Right Sector & Svoboda.

Representatives of these fascist groups have met with Senators John McCain, Bob Menendez and Bob Corker throughout the conflict. These fascist openly neo-nazi groups are the ones that have primarily led the slaughter of innocent civilians in East Ukraine.

February 7, 2015

Merkel defends Ukraine arms stance in face of U.S. criticism

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Germany's Angela Merkel said on Saturday that sending arms to help Ukraine fight pro-Russian separatists would not solve the crisis there, drawing sharp rebukes from U.S. politicians who accused Berlin of turning its back on an ally in distress.

The heated exchanges at a security conference in Munich pointed to cracks in the transatlantic consensus on how to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin over a deepening conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 5,000.

Ukraine's military said on Saturday that pro-Russian separatists had stepped up shelling of government forces and appeared to be amassing troops for new offensives on the key railway town of Debaltseve and the coastal city of Mariupol.

The rebel offensive has triggered a flurry of shuttle diplomacy, with Merkel and French President Francois Hollande jetting to Moscow on Friday to try to convince Putin to do a peace deal.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/07/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSKBN0LB0IA20150207

February 7, 2015

Lavrov: US escalated Ukraine crisis at every stage, blamed Russia

Sergey Lavrov has lashed out at the US for their double standards over Ukraine and taking steps that “only promoted further aggravation” of the conflict. He added Russia is ready to guarantee agreements between Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics.

One of the major sticking points of the crisis so far has been the failure of Kiev to engage in talks with militia leaders in the East of the country. Lavrov is staggered the US, who talked with the Taliban during their invasion of Afghanistan, through channels in Doha, Qatar, is unable to put pressure on Kiev to engage in discussions.

“In the case of Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Sudan our partners actively asked governments to enter into dialogue with the opposition, even if they were extremists. However, during the Ukrainian crisis, they act differently, making up excuses and try to justify the use of cluster bombs,” the Russian Foreign Minister said, who was speaking at a security conference in Munich on Saturday.

The issue of the far right’s rise in Ukrainian politics has been swept under the carpet by the US and EU. Some members of the Ukrainian parliament have promoted ideas such as exterminating Russians and Jews. However, these haven’t been reported or caused any alarm in the West, Russia’s foreign minister added.



http://rt.com/news/230219-lavrov-munich-speech-ukraine/

February 7, 2015

Ukraine Diplomatic Push Intensifies

Source: The Wall Street Journal

MUNICH, Germany—The diplomatic scramble to calm the Ukraine crisis burst into the open here on Saturday as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged a cease-fire agreement to be signed immediately and German Chancellor Angela Merkel clashed with Western officials over whether the West should deliver weapons to Ukraine.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference after two days of intense international diplomacy to ease the crisis, Mr. Poroshenko said that “immediately, we need just very simple things: a cease-fire.”

He said Ukraine is ready to sign up now and that it was now up to Russia to agree a cease-fire without any preconditions. He said, “We should have an answer in a very few hours or maybe maximum a few days.”

Ms. Merkel, who held emergency talks in Kiev and Moscow in recent days, pledged to keep pushing for a deal to calm the fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives. But she warned that despite what her spokesman described as constructive talks in Moscow on Friday, there was no guarantee that Russian President Vladimir Putin would make good on any pledges to halt the conflict.

Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/merkel-expresses-uncertainty-over-ukraine-peace-deal-1423304102

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Hopefully cooler heads will prevail before the NATO generals and the US war hawks escalate this further by giving weapons to the Ukrainian regime.

February 7, 2015

Fears of Western split over Ukraine as Germany rebuffs American threat to send weapons

Source: The Telegraph UK

European ministers warn that allowing US arms to be used against separatist rebels would "pour oil onto the flames" in the Ukraine conflict

Fears of a split in Western strategy towards Ukraine grew on Friday night after Germany directly rebuffed America over its threats to send weapons to Kiev.
As Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, arrived in Moscow for 11th hour peace talks with Vladimir Putin, her ministers said that allowing US arms to be used against separatist rebels would "pour oil onto the flames".
The warning from Ursula von der Leyen, the German defence minister, followed Washington's announcement on Thursday that it might give Ukrainian government forces sophisticated defensive weapons to halt the rebels' recent rapid advance.

Elements within the Pentagon now believe that the only way to force the rebels to the negotiating table is to even the military balance.

But Mrs von der Leyen claimed that would simply give Mr Putin an excuse to arm the rebels more heavily, or even send in the Russian army openly. "In Ukraine there are already far too many weapons," she said. "The resupply (of weapons) to the separatists is potentially unlimited.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11397217/Fears-of-Western-split-over-Ukraine-as-Germany-rebuffs-American-threat-to-send-weapons.html

February 7, 2015

Ukraine’s currency just collapsed 50 percent in two days -Washington Post

Ukraine, to use a technical term, is broke. That's what you call a country whose currency has lost half its value in just two days.

The problem is simple: Ukraine has no money and barely any economy. It's already talking to the IMF about a $15 billion bailout and what's euphemistically being called a debt "restructuring"—i.e., default—as its reserves have dwindled down to $6.42 billion, only enough to cover five weeks of imports. (Three months worth is considered the absolute least you can get by with).

So it was more than a bit belated for Ukraine to stop spending the few dollars it does have on propping up its currency, the hryvnia. It took until Thursday for it to do that, though, and, when it did, the reaction was swift and it was violent. The hyrvnia fell from 16.8 to 24.4 per dollar, and then again to 25.3 on Friday, on the news that the government wouldn't intervene it in anymore. In all, it was a 50 percent decline in 48 hours. And this was despite the fact that its central bank simultaneously jacked up interest rates from 14 to 19.5 percent to try to get people to hold their money in hyrvinia that would pay them a lot instead of dollars that wouldn't. That, as you can see, didn't exactly work.


Now let's back up a minute. Why is Ukraine so doomed? Well, it's been mismanaged on a world-historical scale by oligarchs who, for decades, have skimmed billions off the country's nonexistent growth. That last part's not hyperbole. It seems almost impossible, but Ukraine's economy has actually shrunk since communism ended in 1991. Or since 1992. Or even 1993. And now its not-so-cold war with Russia is destroying the little that's left. It's not just that the rebel strongholds in the factory-heavy east have deprived Ukraine of a quarter of its industrial capacity. It's that it can't afford to fight against what's still it's biggest trading partner—Russia. Think about that. You don't usually trade a lot with the country you're going to battle against, but Ukraine's economy is so dependent on Russia's that it still trades more with it than any other country. That means anything that hurts Russia, like lower oil prices or sanctions, just redounds onto Ukraine, and puts it in an even bigger financial hole.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/06/ukraines-currency-has-fallen-50-percent-in-two-days/


Interesting to see the corrupted Washington Post admitting this considering that it was they who cheerlead the whole debacle in the first place and covered up the atrocities being conducted against the innocent civilian population.

February 7, 2015

Jen Psaki questioned heavily by the AP and US State Department press corps on US hypocrisy on Ukraine and Gaza

February 7, 2015

EU and US split on Ukraine - Part 2

February 7, 2015

US and EU are split on Ukraine

February 6, 2015

The Real Reason Washington Feels Threatened by Moscow The Fallujah Option for East Ukraine

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/06/the-fallujah-option-for-east-ukraine/

Washington needs a war in Ukraine to achieve its strategic objectives. This point cannot be overstated.

The US wants to push NATO to Russia’s western border. It wants a land-bridge to Asia to spread US military bases across the continent. It wants to control the pipeline corridors from Russia to Europe to monitor Moscow’s revenues and to ensure that gas continues to be denominated in dollars. And it wants a weaker, unstable Russia that is more prone to regime change, fragmentation and, ultimately, foreign control. These objectives cannot be achieved peacefully, indeed, if the fighting stopped tomorrow, the sanctions would be lifted shortly after, and the Russian economy would begin to recover. How would that benefit Washington?

It wouldn’t. It would undermine Washington’s broader plan to integrate China and Russia into the prevailing economic system, the dollar system. Powerbrokers in the US realize that the present system must either expand or collapse. Either China and Russia are brought to heel and persuaded to accept a subordinate role in the US-led global order or Washington’s tenure as global hegemon will come to an end.

This is why hostilities in East Ukraine have escalated and will continue to escalate. This is why the U.S. Congress approved a bill for tougher sanctions on Russia’s energy sector and lethal aid for Ukraine’s military. This is why Washington has sent military trainers to Ukraine and is preparing to provide $3 billion in “anti-armor missiles, reconnaissance drones, armored Humvees, and radars that can determine the location of enemy rocket and artillery fire.” All of Washington’s actions are designed with one purpose in mind, to intensify the fighting and escalate the conflict. The heavy losses sustained by Ukraine’s inexperienced army and the terrible suffering of the civilians in Lugansk and Donetsk are of no interest to US war-planners. Their job is to make sure that peace is avoided at all cost because peace would derail US plans to pivot to Asia and remain the world’s only superpower.